1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a home appliance for outputting diagnosis data as a signal sound and a method of outputting such a signal sound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a user contacts a service center when a home appliance breaks down and a technician personally visits the user for repair. However, such a personal visit by a technician causes excessive costs and also, without prior information on the home appliance, it is difficult to repair the home appliance effectively. Later, with the development of technology, a telephone network is used to remotely diagnose failure information.
Moreover, European patent application no. EP0510519 discloses a technique that sending failure information on a home appliance to a service center via a telephone network with a modem connected to the home appliance. However, in this case, there is a problem that the modem needs to be always connected the home appliance. Especially, since a home appliance such as a laundry washing machine is generally installed outdoors, there is difficulty connecting the laundry washing machine to a telephone network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105 discloses a method of controlling a home appliance that converts information on the operation of a home appliance into a sound signal and outputs it through a telephone network. Such a control method sends a sound signal outputted from a home appliance to a service center through a user's phone. In terms of the structure of the data packets constituting the sound signal, the information to be transmitted into a plurality of packets for output. One packet is configured with a 2.97 sec duration, and when one packet is outputted, the next packet is outputted 730 ms later. Accordingly, outputting all the information to be transmitted takes more than 3 sec.
A portable terminal such as a mobile phone or smart phone provides a noise canceling function. When a signal having a predetermined frequency is continuously detected for a predetermined time (about 3 sec), such a noise canceling function recognizes the signal as noise. Furthermore, the signal sound intensity is drastically reduced or distorted by a communication environment when the signal sound is inputted to a portable terminal, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105. Even when an idle period (for example, 730 ms) is set between packets (each length configured with less than 3 sec), the signal may still be recognized as noise. For reference, U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105 provides no suggestion or recognition of the noise canceling function of a portable terminal, let alone a method of evading the above issue.